On March 11, 2011, a huge earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit the east coast of the northeast Island of Honshu, Japan. We have all heard the results; major radioactivity emissions occurred involving a particularly bad actor, Cs-137…

On 24 May 2012, more than a year after the disaster, TEPCO released their estimate of radiation releases due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster. An estimated 538,100 terabecquerels (TBq) of iodine-131, caesium-134 and caesium-137 was released. 520,000 TBq was released into the atmosphere between 12 to 31 March 2011 and 18,100 TBq into the ocean from 26 March to 30 September 2011. A total of 511,000 TBq of iodine-131 was released into both the atmosphere and the ocean, 13,500 TBq of caesium-134 and 13,600 TBq of caesium-137. In May 2012, TEPCO reported that at least 900 PBq had been released “into the atmosphere in March last year [2011] alone up from previous estimates of 360-370 PBq total.

In a leaked TEPCO report dated June 2011, it was revealed that plutonium-238, −239, −240, and −241 were released “to the air” from the site during the first 100 hours after the earthquake, the total amount of plutonium said to be 120 billion becquerels (120 GBq) — perhaps as much as 50 grams. The same paper mentioned a release of 7.6 trillion becquerels of neptunium-239 – about 1 milligram. As neptunium-239 decays, it becomes plutonium-239. TEPCO made this report for a press conference on 6 June, but according to Mochizuki of the Fukushima Diary website, the media knew and “kept concealing the risk for 7 months and kept people exposed”.

TEPCO has revised the readings on the radioactivity levels at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant well to 5 million becquerels of strontium per liter – both a record, and nearly five times higher than the original reading of 900,000 becquerels per liter.

Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission with a half-life of 28.8 years. The legal standard for strontium emissions is 30 becquerels per liter. Exposure to strontium-90 can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. originally said that the said 900,000 becquerels of beta-ray sources per liter, including strontium – were measured in the water sampled on July 5 last year.

However, the company noted on Friday that the previous radioactivity levels had been wrong, meaning that it was also likely reading taken from the other wells at the disaster-struck plant prior to September were also likely to have been inaccurate, the Asahi Shimbum newspaper reported.

Researchers from MIT, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, and others published their most recent advance in the journal ACS Nano (“Selective Molecular Transport through Intrinsic Defects in a Single Layer of CVD Graphene”). Basically they made relatively large membranes from single sheets of graphene grown by chemical vapour deposition, and found that the material generated usable defects, or holes in the graphene sheets. Source:

HOUSTON – (Jan. 8, 2013) – Graphene oxide has a remarkable ability to quickly remove radioactive material from contaminated water, researchers at Rice University and Lomonosov Moscow State University have found.

A collaborative effort by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour and the Moscow lab of chemist Stepan Kalmykov determined that microscopic, atom-thick flakes of graphene oxide bind quickly to natural and human-made radionuclides and condense them into solids. The flakes are soluble in liquids and easily produced in bulk.

The discovery, Tour said, could be a boon in the cleanup of contaminated sites like the Fukushima nuclear plants damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It could also cut the cost of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil and gas recovery and help reboot American mining of rare earth metals, he said.

Graphene oxide’s large surface area defines its capacity to adsorb toxins, Kalmykov said. “So the high retention properties are not surprising to us,” he said. “What is astonishing is the very fast kinetics of sorption, which is key.”

Research collaboration between Russian and US chemists has discovered a new use for graphene oxide flakes—the clean-up of radionuclide contaminatedwater[1][2]. Radioactive elements are harmful even in small concentrations, making any remediation of radioactive materials in water a slow process simply for the facts that very few radioactive particles may come in contact with reactants that have relatively little surface area for reaction. Graphene Oxide flakes inherently have large surface areas and are readily soluble in liquids. In addition to their large relative surface area, these nanothin particles have very fast sorption kinetics. These nanoflakes react with radioactive material including rare earth elements, plutonium, and uranium in liquids, attracting them to their surface and creating a precipitate in the liquid that is easily filtered[3].

The graphene oxide flakes are easily manufactured and display better sorption kinetics than bentonite clays or activated carbon filters used in conventional radioactive contaminated water cleanup. While the graphene does not eliminate the radioactive wastes, it concentrates the waste into a solid making it much easier to deal with. Graphene oxide is combustible, burning rapidly. This property allows the concentrated radioactive materials to be concentrated into dry solids that can then be repurposed and recycled for fuel or can be mined for their rare earth minerals in the case of water contaminated with radioactive actinides or lanthanides.

Graphene Oxide is manufactured through a simple chemical reduction-oxidation (RedOx) method that requires mixing crystalline graphite with sodium nitrate, sulfuric acid, and potassium permanganate[4]. The formation of the thin films to create flakes is done by either chemical reduction with hydrazine, or bacterial synthesis; the latter being a “green” method free of additional chemicals.

Save The Pacific Ocean

http://savethepacificocean.org

Save the Pacific Ocean is a non-profit organization focused on preserving and protecting the Pacific Ocean. Our mandate is to identify potential dangers to the environment and potential contaminants. We will assist by sourcing effective technologies, such as containment and filtering, and help implement accordingly to protect the marine environment.

Significant advances have been made in the field of nanotechnology. For example, new developments enable the clumping and gathering of radioactive materials such that contaminated water can be filtered, reduced, and contained in smaller quantities.

At this time, there is an urgent need for international collaboration to implement these technologies to assist Japan’s Tepco Corporation with controlling contaminated water from Fukushima reactors that are in critical status. Scientists have developed proven technologies for filtering contaminated radioactive water.

Together we can bring these and other technologies to the forefront. We commit to channeling 100% of our resources toward the protection of the environment and marine life. We welcome your participation in this effort and thank you for your support! spo dolphins

by Yagasaki Katsuma / The Asia-Pacific Journal / May 15, 2016 Yagasaki Katsuma, emeritus professor of Ryukyu University, has been constantly sounding the alarm about the problem of internal exposure related to nuclear weapons testing and nuclear electricity generation. Since the explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP), he has drawn on his […]

via PNAS / April 2016 Significance Quantification of contamination risk caused by radioisotopes released from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is useful for excluding or reducing groundless rumors about food safety. Our new statistical approach made it possible to evaluate the risk for aquatic food and showed that the present contamination levels of radiocesiums […]